Sometimes there is one album that sticks in your mind from the “early days”. Mine happens to be the 1969 “On the Threshold of a Dream” by the Moody Blues.

The short opening track is a bit (well more than a bit) twee…but in 1969 at the start of my expanding musical life I can safely say I had heard nothing like it as an LP opener. The constraints of the blog won’t let me flow straight into the upbeat second track as happens on the album which is a shame…you’ll need to use Spotify for that I’m afraid.

It was to be their first British No1 and it was the first time I had come across a concept album (not that I knew then what a concept album was). Even more impressive in those days was that the Moody Blues used a mellotron…that was really cool! Only cool bands used that type of gear. In fact it was so cool that I looked it up yesterday (after 40 years of ignorance) to find out what it actually was. For the record – it is basically a tape sampler that you play with a keyboard. See the link for the boring details.

Unfortunately within my social circle the Moody Blues were considered decidedly uncool which meant that the merits (or otherwise) of the album were never to be discussed for fear of ridicule. If I am being honest about it I didn’t really listen to music that was considered cool but I was lucky; my normal taste in artists was so far “out of the box” at the opposite end of the music spectrum from the favoured ” heavy” rock that I was given grudging respect…if kept at a safe distance.

Anyway, jumping back to the present day…

I am convinced that age is beginning to take its toll. I still have the original LP (which I consider a major triumph after almost 50 years and goodness knows how many house moves) but, strangely, I cannot decide whether or not I have the CD which I would have bought (possibly) within the past 20 years.

It’s a bit of a mess

Remembering is difficult enough but when you take my random filing system in to account things become a bit tricky. You begin to see the problem? Unfortunately this is only a part of the collection. Just as well the digital stuff is on the computer!

The original LP

After much debate I ended up buying a new CD for a fiver…I reckon the old one (if it exists) should turn up any day now!

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8 thoughts on “Being Uncool circa 1970”

Hmmm, not really my sort of thing but that’s what I’m enjoying about your new blog, short snippets of stuff I haven’t heard before. I may start adding a music clip to my posts. I used to create slideshows with a musical sound track but I can’t be bothered any more

Thanks Andy…I had to find something different to tackle after “Where The Fatdog Walks”. I spent about 6 years (off and on) searching for a subject/style to take its place. Once I get comfortable with the new subject matter I’m hoping to bring back more of the flavour of the original blog. I now regret not using more music in WtFW as it would have added another dimension to the blog – but I had my hands full just getting the craziness to work with the text and photos!

Regarding slideshows I think it is about picking when to do them and getting the music track spot-on to match the contents of the photos. I’m probably going to use some of the old photos of the hillwalking era with tracks I associate from that period but that is just an idle thought atm.

Six years? Blimey – time flies. Music is important to me too and I occasionally remember that fact and tack something onto the end of a post – but never the Moody Blues. Not yet anyway. The music which was regarded as cool by many of my contemporaries at school seems to be largely forgotten today (with the notable exception of the ‘Thriller’ LP), whilst, it seems to me, many of those contemporaries have retrospectively remembered a liking for the things they used to ask me to turn off. Ho-hum.

Hi Mark…great to hear from you after all these years! Hope you and the family are all well. It’s coming up 10 years since I started WtFDW and just over 6 since its first incarnation came to an end. I can’t believe (after a few futile attempts to boot it up again) how long it has taken for me to start blogging “properly” again.

Must be the difference in our ages if the Moody Blues were considered cool. lol What I do remember was that “Knights in White Satin” was always played as the last “slow” dance at our youth club discos. That definitely put them into the uncool slot with the music geeks.

It is true about retro becoming fashionable (in personal tastes I mean) – even I listen to stuff I might have ignored…um…50 years ago! Having said that I still have to listen to Captain Beefheart and Frank Zappa (for whom I had little liking in the 60s) but I’m not holding my breath!

I suppose that there’s uncool and UNCOOL! Unfortunately (or perhaps not) I’m in the latter category as I really like Nights in White Satin or my favourite………..Forever Autumn. That comes, of course, from my War of the Worlds salad days………whatever that might mean. Keep it coming.

Welcome to the blog Alan – great to hear from you! 🙂 Thank you for the support – much appreciated.

I have to admit other than a few other tracks that album was the full extent of my Moody Blues collection. In our circle having a Moody Blues album was near to heresy so I was stretching my luck even having the one.

War of the Worlds – I remember there was a narrator and I can hear the opening track as I write – then there is a blank after that. Not even sure why I know that much as I never had the album. Got me puzzled (scratches head).